Tips for assigning keyboard shortcut & snippet triggers

InqScribe lets you create custom shortcut & snippet and assign them to a keystroke (or "trigger") of your choosing. Although you're free to assign a shortcut or snippet to any combination of keys, you might run into issues using preexisting triggers.

In this article, we'll go through the "in use" triggers you should avoid as well as which triggers are generally available for assignment.

What triggers are already in use?

There are generally 2 types of triggers you'll want to keep in mind:

1. Preexisting InqScribe shortcuts.

To avoid overlap, refer to the table of default InqScribe shortcuts below:

Command Mac Windows
Settings/Options Cmd, N/A
Hide InqScribe CmdH N/A
Hide others OptCmdH N/A
Quit CmdQ AltF4
New Document CmdN CtrlN
New Document with Media File... ShiftCmdN CtrlShiftN
Open document CmdO CtrlO
Close window CmdW CtrlW
Save CmdS CtrlS
Save As... CmdShiftS CtrlShiftS
Print CmdP CtrlP
Undo CmdZ CtrlZ
Redo CmdY CtrlY
Cut CmdX CtrlX
Copy CmdC CtrlC
Paste CmdV CtrlV
Select all CmdA CtrlA
Copy Time to Clipboard ShiftCmdC CtrlShiftC
Insert Time Cmd; Ctrl;
Insert Snippet Cmd1 Ctrl1
Find and Replace CmdF CtrlF
Find Next CmdG CtrlG
Replace Cmd= CtrlH
Replace and Find Next ShiftCmd= CtrlShiftH
Select Media Source... CmdD CtrlD
Select Media File ShiftCmdD CtrlShiftD
Reload Media CmdR CtrlR
Go to Time... CmdT CtrlT
Sync Transcript with Current Time CmdK CtrlK
Minimize Window CmdM N/A

2. System-wide shortcuts.

For example, CommandShift3 is already assigned as a system-wide shortcut on most Mac computers to take a screenshot. To avoid any problems, refer to the following list of trigger limitations from our shortcut documentation:

Windows Trigger Limitations

  • Existing system-wide hotkeys (e.g. print screen ) may not be used.
  • Avoid key combinations that are already mapped to menu items, like Ctrl; or CtrlO. Such combinations will trigger both the menu item and the shortcut, which probably isn't what you want.

Mac OS Trigger Limitations

  • Existing system-wide hotkeys (e.g. Exposé ) may not be used.
  • Be careful using F1-F4. On some Macs, these keys are automatically mapped to Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste.
  • Avoid key combinations that are already mapped to menu items, like Command; or CommandO. Such combinations will trigger both the menu item and the shortcut or snippet, which probably isn't what you want.
  • Avoid key combinations that are used to enter accented characters (for example, Optionu, Optione, Optiona ). These combinations are handled by the OS in a special way, and while InqScribe can detect them, InqScribe cannot prevent them from also being typed into your transcript.

What keyboard triggers are not in use?

To avoid inadvertently triggering a shortcut or snippet command, we recommend using a modifier such as Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac). As you may notice from the section above, many triggers are already assigned. Note that you can also combine the Ctrl or Command modifier with another modifier, such as the Shift key to open up more triggers.